Any comments on the latest steps in reconciliation 10 years after German unification?
I note tonight that after only 9 months of a 3 year sentence for deaths of people escaping over the wall, 2 former SED Politburo members, Kleiber and Schabowsky, have been released by the CDU mayor of Berlin, Diepgen.
Schabowsky is particularly interesting as the man who gave the fateful televised news conference in which he said he assumed people who went to the frontier posts would be able to cross into West Germany, and this started a chain reaction within hours.
Presumably the CDU is pre-occupied with trying to rehabilitate the contribution of Helmut Kohl as the architect of unification (with the aid of some undeclared financial contributions).
I see also that the head of the DGB (trades union federation) in Sachsen-Anhalt which is run by a minority SPD government with PDS support, has declared that the PDS is ready to take part in government. The ground seems to be set for their participation in coalition regimes in certain states in the east.
Chris Burford
London